Cary Fukunaga has long been attached to a big-screen version of Stephen King’s It, but things seem to finally be moving forward, with a start date pencilled in for next summer on a two-film adaptation of the epic novel.

Clocking in at more than one thousand pages, It is one of King’s weightier tomes, with producer Dan Lin confirming that Fukunaga has been given two films with which to cover all the material, and revealing that King himself is delighted with the script…

“The idea is to start official prep in March for a summer shoot,” said Lin to Vulture. “Cary likes to develop things for a while, and we’ve been with this for about three or four years, so we’re super excited that he stayed with it. You guys are gonna be really excited.”

“The most important thing is that Stephen King gave us his blessing,” continues Lin. “We didn’t want to make this unless he felt it was the right way to go, and when we sent him the script, the response that Cary got back was, ‘Go with God, please! This is the version the studio should make.’ So that was really gratifying.”

Hugely exciting news then, with cameras set to begin rolling on the project in about six months time. The next challenge for Fukunaga and co.? Devising a version of Pennywise the clown to live up to Tim Curry’s horrifying portrayal…